“Ah! that is my affair. Take my whole fortune! Take my life!”
And he threw the whole purse on the table.
“In this case, and solely to extricate you from the extreme danger in which I see you placed, I consent to give you a decoction, and certain instructions, which will instantly relieve the lady from her burden. She must use the greatest precaution, and study to carry out exactly what I am about to tell you. My God! only such desperate occasions as this one could induce me to—— Here——”
She took a flask from the bottom of a cupboard, and continued—
“Here is a liquor which never fails.”
“Oh, madame, you save my honour, which is dearer to me than life! But this is not enough: tell me what use I am to make of this liquor, and in what doses I am to administer it.”
“The patient,” replied the midwife, “must take one spoonful the first day; the second day two; the third——”
“You will obey me to the minutest particular?”
“I swear it.”
“Let us start, then.”